Thursday, July 19, 2007 Arroyo to stay in power until 2010: Palace By Jo Reyes
* Critic says Arroyo should be allowed to govern country until her term ends, calls for sincerity from President
EXECUTIVE Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Wednesday that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would continue to govern the country until she finishes her term in 2010 in the way that she thinks is best for the Philippines and the Filipinos.
Ermita said while some groups or people may give unsolicited advice on how they think the President should run the country or perform her job, it is still up to Arroyo in the end.
He said they also could not prevent well meaning individuals to give any unsolicited advise.
Our President, serving the mandate of the election of 2004, shall continue to govern in the manner that she knows best to improve the quality of life of our people and so Im very sure people will understand that the President is doing exactly what is mandated of her, he said.
He added that having low satisfaction or performance ratings is not an issue with the administration as there are hardly heads of state in the world who in the performance of their duties have ever rated very, very high.
Ermita said Arroyo would continue to do unpopular decisions and choices, if she thinks it is needed and would be for the good of the country.
Televangelist Eduardo Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord movement said Arroyo should be allowed to finish her term until 2010 and that she should be sincere in all that she is doing.
Villanueva, who ran against Arroyo for the presidency in 2004, met Arroyo the Trees for Life program at the La Mesa Watershed in Fairview in Quezon City, also called the administrations attention on the continued graft and corruption practices in the country.
Ermita said the problem however is not limited to Arroyo administration or the Philippines. He said there are graft and corruption cases in all other administration and in other countries as well.
He admitted that graft and corruption is one of the problems that the government is trying to address as such illegal activity prevents the administration from utilize the resources of government properly that will go to the projects, that will go to the improvement of the living conditions of our people.
So maybe what we can say is we should just improve on our performance especially in governance so that we can to minimize, if not totally eradicate corruption. Maybe we should intensify our efforts at curbing graft and corruption in government, he said. (JMR/Sunnex)
